Color of Forgiveness (10 page)

“Sabrina is his ex-wife.”

“What the…?”

“Yep… he was married and never bothered to
tell me. I went by his house the next morning to check on him, to
see if he was all right. And Sabrina answered the door… wearing
only his shirt and her wedding ring. She told me she was his ex and
that they were working on getting back together.”

Susie finally lowers her fork. “Holy horse
shit,” she whispers, her eyes wide, her mouth parted slightly.

“Eventually Dylan came to the door... in
only his boxers. I thought for sure they’d slept together. And he
was not happy to see me there. Of course he denied that anything
happened. I know it’s probably stupidly naïve and dumb, but I did
believe him. And today, he adamantly denied it again. Anyway, I
demanded that he tell me what was going on but he refused. He said
he didn’t want to talk while she was there and wanted to come over
later. So I went back home, packed a bag and had every intention of
just catching the first flight out to come visit you for a while,
to get some space from him. But then you called, about your dad. I
left before he got a chance to come over.”

Susie’s expression turns furious. “That.
Fucking. Turd. That sorry low-down piece of dog shit. I knew it! I
knew he’d make me go bi-polar again. I’m going to kick his
beautiful, round ass so hard that he’s going to wear those ass
cheeks on his forehead. I’m going to rip his big balls from that
gorgeous body of his, blend them up in a mixer, and serve them to
him in a frosty cup with a bendy straw. I’m going to—”

“Stop! You’re not going to doing anything. I
know you’re protective of me, and I appreciate it, but this is
my
problem. And I’m going to deal with it. Somehow…” Myra’s
voice waivers.

“I can’t believe he did that. What a slimy,
scuzzy, maggot brain. Why does that asshead have to be so gorgeous?
I
hate
that about him. I wish he was ugly. He needs to pay
for this. I’m going to—”

“Wait. He told me he got your address off of
a card you sent. Did you send me a card?”

“A card?” Susie asks her brows furrowed for
a few seconds before she throws her head back and laughs. “Oh,
Lordy, I totally forgot about that.” She throws Myra a devilish
smile. “I made you a ‘You Got Dicked’ card.”

“You
what?
”

Susie giggles like crazy. “Oh, god, it’s
hilarious. You’re going to die laughing. You should have seen me
Googling pictures of dicks. I ended up making myself horny and had
to have a consultation with Mr. Gigantopolis.” Susie cackles like a
hyena.

“Ugh, that’s disgusting.”

“Sorry,” Susie says, still laughing. “I’m
just kidding. Well, kind of. Anyway, I sent it to you right before
I found out about dad.”

“I can’t believe you did that.”

“I couldn’t help it. I was excited that you
finally got some wong. I felt like we needed to celebrate.”

“Dylan wouldn’t have found me if you hadn’t
sent that card.”

Susie’s eyes widen. “Did he open it?”

“Oh god, no…”

Susie giggles. “Can you imagine his face if
he had?”

Myra shakes her head… and has to smile a
little at that visual in her head.

“But, hey, it’s not
my
fault that he
got a hold of that card. I was just trying to bring some funny into
your day. Wait a minute… how
did
he get it? I thought Jackie
was getting your mail.”

“She is. He said he was at my house sitting
on the porch when the mailman came up and handed him the mail. Your
card was on top.”

Susie’s brows furrow in confusion. “But you
didn’t talk to him before you left to come here, right?”

Myra nods.

“So how did he even know you were coming to
Philly?”

“He said he guessed.”

“He
guessed?
He flew all this way on
a hunch? Damn…” Susie pauses seeming to let that information sink
in for a moment. “So what does he want?”

“He wants to talk. He wants me to give him
another chance. I’m so confused,” Myra says, pulling her legs up to
her chest and wrapping her arms around them. “I feel like I’m
repeating the past. I can’t go through that again. It’s like a part
of me wants to hear what he has to say for himself; I want to know
what he was doing with her. But then another part of me just wants
to tell him to go away and leave me alone. What should I do?”

Susie stares at her for a moment before she
groans and blows out a heavy breath, puffing her cheeks like a
chipmunk. “Me oh my… My gut reaction is to tell you to tell that
maggot to go flush himself down the crapper. But… damn it the man
did fly all the way across the country to see you. He didn’t even
know if you’d be here or not. Why would he do that? That is worth
something.”

Susie stares down at her plate for a minute.
“I’d really like to see you tell his beautiful ass off and let me
give him a Susie ass whoopin’ of epic proportions, but… I think you
should talk to him. I can’t see him going to all the trouble to
follow you out here just to give you a lame ass excuse. And I know
you care about him because you would have never, ever slept with
him if you didn’t. Once he says his piece, then you can decide what
to do.”

Myra lays her head on her knees.

“You’ll have the house to yourself tomorrow.
Invite him over. Listen to what he has to say. Then you can decide
what to do next.”

Myra nods.

“You don’t deserve this, you know that,
right? You’re such a wonderful, kind, beautiful person; both inside
and out. If I ever have a mid-life crisis and go lesbo, just know
that I will be all over your cute ass,” Susie says before snorting.
Myra gives her the stink eye. “But if you decide to dump the
gorgeousness, just know that I gots your back, and I plan to jack
his sexy jaw up and kick his beautiful ass cheeks extra hard. I’ll
make sure to wear my cowboy boots that are in the back of my closet
from when I lost my mind and went through that line-dancing
phase.”

Myra grins. “Thanks… for listening and for
being my bestest best friend ever,” Myra says as she leans over and
gives her a half-hug being mindful of the plate of food in her lap.
She stands and stretches. “Well, it’s getting late and you have to
get up early for work. I’m going to go to bed.”

“Nighty night,” Susie says, picking up her
fork and grinning. “I refuse to let a bite of this go to waste. If
you need to talk – even in the middle of the night – come wake me
up, okay?”

“Okay,” Myra says softly before exiting
Susie’s bedroom. She sighs as she makes her way to the spare
bedroom, knowing she has a long, sleepless night ahead of her and
some hard decisions to make.

* * *

Dylan lies in his darkened hotel room,
staring at nothing and thinking of everything. The heater by the
window blows the curtain slightly, letting in little streaks of
light that cast unusual shadows on the wall.

He watches the dancing shadows for a while
before he sighs and reaches for his cell phone. He hits speed
dial.

“Was she there?” Natalie asks immediately in
an excited voice.

“Yeah…”

“Oh, thank goodness. I was terrified that
you’d fly that whole way for nothing. So, how did it go?”

“She was pissed, really pissed. We didn’t
get to talk. She said she needed some time to think. She’s going to
call me tomorrow.”

“Well, that’s encouraging. At least she
didn’t tell you to take a hike. I’m sure this is a lot for her to
take in.”

“Yeah, I just… I know I didn’t say the right
things. I just hope I did enough. What if she doesn’t want to talk
to me?”

“I’m sure after she thinks things through,
she’ll want to talk. If she sends you away after you flew out there
like you did, then she’s not the type of person you should be with
anyway.”

Dylan clears his throat. “So, how’s the
baby?”

“Good. She’s been kicking my ribs something
fierce. She’s a strong one. She’ll need to be being the baby sister
to three older brothers.”

Dylan smiles. He’s really looking forward to
meeting his new niece.

“Well, I better go,” he says.

“Okay. Try not to worry about things
tonight. It’ll all work out just fine; I know it will. If she
really cares about you, she’ll give you another chance. Call me
tomorrow and let me know how it goes, okay?”

“Okay.”

After saying their goodbyes, Dylan flips his
phone shut and throws it on the bedside table. He hopes like hell
that Nat is right about Myra.

Sighing, he throws his arm over his eyes as
he replays the conversation he had with Myra over and over again.
He feels like he didn’t do enough to convince her; that his words
somehow weren’t right. He struggles with words; he always has. He
fucking
hates
to talk because it never comes out right. He
just hopes that maybe he somehow got across some of what he’s
feeling in his heart.

Groaning, he rubs his eyes when he thinks
about the possibility that she might not want to talk. If it comes
to that, he won’t accept it. He’ll do something rash; he knows he
will. Like throw her over his shoulder, lock her in a room
somewhere and
make
her listen.

Eventually – hours later – sleep finally
pulls him under. In the morning, his phone rings, scaring the shit
out of him. His heart races as his arm flies out to the nightstand
and gropes around in the dark for it. “Goddamn it,” he mumbles when
he knocks it to the floor. He half falls out of bed and scrambles
around, until he finally gets it into his hands and flips it
open.

“Yeah?” he answers in a gravelly,
out-of-breath voice before quickly clearing his throat.

He panics when he doesn’t get a
response.

“Hello?” he asks.

“Yeah, it’s me… Myra.”

He blows out a heavy breath and sinks onto
the bed. “Hi,” he says before swallowing heavily.

“Hi.”

He feels like he can’t breathe.

She clears her throat. “Um, I wanted to see
if you could come over, to Susie’s to… talk.”

His heart skips a beat. “Really?”

“Yeah.”

“Uh, sure, I’ll be there. What time?”

“Any time’s fine.”

“Okay. Let me grab a quick shower, and I’ll
be right over.”

“Okay.”

He rubs the back of his neck. “Um…
Myra?”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you… for this. I’ll be there
soon.”

He smiles when she hums in response.

“Bye,” he whispers.

Closing his eyes, he takes in a deep breath
when he hears her whisper, “Bye,” in response.

He tosses his phone on the bed beside him
and drops his head into his hands. As relief floods his body, he
almost feels weak from the sensation. He can hardly fucking believe
that she’s actually going to give him another chance. He knows he
doesn’t deserve one, but by god, he’s going to take full advantage
of it.

Now he has to summon all of the courage he
can and do something he hasn’t done in three years: talk. It’s
going to fucking hurt. Like hell. But he’ll do it for her, for
Myra. He’d do anything for Myra.

CHAPTER 4

Myra’s stomach does a flip-flop when the
doorbell finally rings. For the last half hour, she’s been sitting
on Susie’s couch, trying to ease her nerves as she waits on Dylan.
She didn’t sleep a wink last night because she stayed up thinking
about everything that had happened and trying to decide what to do.
She concluded that she wasn’t being fair to him. After all, she did
lead him to believe he could come over and talk to her after
catching him with Sabrina. She decided he deserved a chance to talk
especially considering he flew all the way to Philadelphia to find
her. However, she does have some stipulations on this conversation
that she needs to be clear about up front.

Closing her eyes and taking in a deep breath
to calm herself, she opens the door. Immediately her heartbeat
skyrockets and she loses her breath the moment she takes one look
at him. Susie was so right; the man is breathtakingly handsome. His
damp, disheveled hair sticks up in a crazy chaos with a few strands
falling down on his forehead, and he shaved the scruff that was
present yesterday leaving his jaw smooth and defined. She chews on
her thumbnail as her eyes quickly devour his tall frame, moving
from his black Carhartt coat, and the white V-neck T-shirt with an
unbuttoned blue flannel shirt over it, down to his faded jeans and
black boots.

She wishes she wasn’t so physically affected
by his looks.

“Hi,” he says in a soft voice, his eyes
staring intently into hers.

Her heart skips several beats, knocking
roughly against her ribs as she gives him a small smile. She steps
to the side to let him in, watching as he shrugs out of his
coat.

“I can hang that up… if you want,” she
says.

“Thanks,” he says with a small smile,
handing it to her.

As she walks to the hall closet, she can’t
help but smell his coat. The scent of smoke is heavy but it’s mixed
with a manly, spicy soap as well. But mainly, it just smells like
him
.

Sighing inwardly, she closes the closet
door. “Would you like some coffee?” she asks.

“Yeah, that’d be great.”

Walking into the kitchen with Dylan trailing
behind her, she quietly pours him a cup. When she hands it to him,
their fingers slightly brush against each other’s. Her breath
catches in her throat and when she looks up, she finds him staring
down at her with so much tenderness in his eyes that makes her
heart speed up.

“Thanks,” he mumbles softly.

She gives him a small smile before picking
up her cup off of the counter. “We can go into the family room… if
that’s okay…?”

“Sure,” he says with a nod.

Walking to the love seat, she sits down and
holds the mug in her hand staring into it. From the corner of her
eye, she watches as he sits down on the couch adjacent to her and
sets his cup on the edge of the coffee table.